1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a syringe based feeder that has a nipple thereon for feeding small animals such as kittens. The feeder also has a guard for helping prevent the animal's paws from interfering with the feeding process.
2. Background of the Prior Art
Baby animals, such as kittens, are dependent on their mother for just about everything, including nutrition, for survival. Unfortunately, sometimes the baby animal is separated from its mother due to death or incapacitation of the mother, forced separation by man, etc. If the baby animal is separated from its mother, either man intervenes and provides for the baby or the baby, too young and immature to fend for itself, dies.
As mentioned, one of the critical functions that man must perform is to feed the baby animal so that it has sufficient nutrition to sustain itself. Normally, the baby animal latches on to a teat of the mother and drinks the milk produced by the mother. Such mother's milk, also consumed by many other animals including man, generally provides all the nutrients needed by the baby animal in the critical first days and weeks of the baby's life. Of course, man lacks such teats or the ability to produce mother's milk for an animal, therefore, other accommodations must be made. Modern science has produced formulas that closely match and often exceed the nutritional qualities of the mother's milk for a baby kitten or other animal. However, even if a specialized formula is not available, simple milk and cream make a great substitute for the non-available mother's milk.
With a nutritional substitute in hand, the next problem becomes actually feeding the animal with the milk or formula. Baby animals often lack the skills and abilities to feed themselves from a bowl or other food source, such skills and abilities being learned over time. To address this, many baby animal caregivers simply use a syringe for the feeding process. An amount of feeding liquid is drawn into the barrel of the syringe through the tip of the hub with the tip being inserted into the kitten's mouth and the plunger being slowly depressed in order to deliver the liquid into the kitten's mouth. While technically sound, this method of liquid delivery is not particularly efficient due to the fact that the tip of the hub is a rather unnatural element for the kitten and the baby animal is reluctant to have the tip placed into its mouth. As a result, the caregiver must force the tip into the kitten's mouth, oftentimes with great struggle with the animal. Not only can such a struggle lead to a mess with formula or milk all over the place, but the relatively delicate animal can suffer an injury.
To address this issue, nursing nipples have been used which nipples cover the tip of the syringe and allow the kitten to draw the liquid from the syringe through the nipple. As the nipple is more natural to the animal, both aesthetically and texturally, the animal is less resistant to its use and is more likely to latch onto the nipple and “nurse” therefrom. The use of a nipple overlying the cold and clinical hub tip of the syringe vastly improves the efficiency of the baby animal feeding process, however, certain shortcoming still remain. The baby animal, being playful by instinct, uses its front paws to engage the hands of the caregiver during the feeding process. This engagement of the hands of the caregiver by the kitten interferes with the feeding process by making it difficult for the caregiver to maintain the nipple within the animal's mouth. Not only can a mess result, but the animal, although having fun with the caregiver, does not ingest the required amount of sustenance during the feeding cycle. To address this problem, a second caregiver engages the paws of the kitten so that the first caregiver can concentrate on maintaining the nipple within the mouth of the animal. While effective, this method is inefficient in that a second person is needed for each feeding cycle, which can be expensive in a commercial setting such as a veterinarian's office, and possibly difficult to obtain in a private home setting when a person is alone with the kitten.
What is needed is a system whereby a baby animal such as a kitten can be easily and effectively fed via a nipple tipped syringe wherein the playfulness of the animal does not adversely interfere with the feeding process. Specifically, such a system must allow a single person to be able to feed the baby animal and keep the animal's paws engaged on an area other than the caregiver's hands. Ideally, such a system is of relatively simple design and construction so as to be relatively inexpensive to manufacture and obtain.